Ashby ‘out to get Labor’

The political staff member who has accused the Speaker of the federal Parliament, Peter Slipper, of sexual harassment was contacting Liberal Party politicians and journalists months before he launched his court action, in an alleged attempt to inflict damage on the federal Labor government.

James Ashby is accused of plotting with News Ltd journalist Steve Lewis, Mr Slipper’s enemy Mal Brough and other Queensland politicians in the lead-up to filing his explosive and salacious claim.

Mr Brough intends to run for Mr Slipper’s seat in Queensland.

The revelations came in the Federal Court on Friday when Mr Slipper was given permission by the court to serve subpoenas on Mr Brough, Mr Lewis, Mr Ashby’s colleague, Karen Doane, and his public relations consultant, Anthony McClellan, after damaging information was discovered on Mr Ashby’s iPhone when it was provided to Mr Slipper’s lawyers and the government.

Mr Slipper’s barrister, David Chin, said the motivation behind the proceedings was to inflict reputational damage on Mr Slipper.

It was a “calculated and orchestrated political and public relations campaign”, he said.

“The combination of the fact that dissemination of very serious allegations to the media before any material was given to Mr Slipper and the later abandonment of the serious allegations . . . renders the proceedings unjustifiably oppressive [for Mr Slipper],” Mr Chin said.

The Speaker wants the claim against him permanently stayed on the grounds it is an abuse of the court process.

Attorney-General Nicola Roxon hinted after the proceedings on Friday that more people than those set to be subpoenaed could be involved.

“There are a large number of Queensland Liberal National Party identities that are clearly going to be brought up in the course of these hearings, and Mr Brough is one of them,” she said. “A number of other participants, other than the applicant, were party to formulating this complaint with the clear intention of publicising it before it was filed, with the clear intention of harming Mr Slipper and advantaging his political opponents.”

Ms Roxon said the involvement of other people in the process cast a “very different light” on the allegations against Mr Slipper.

The government’s barrister, Julian Burnside, QC, told the court phone records showed Mr Ashby and fellow adviser Ms Doane colluded to undermine Mr Slipper while they were working for him by providing sensitive material to political opponents and to Mr Lewis – who broke stories about the sexual harassment claim and of alleged Cabcharge fraud.

Mr Ashby and Ms Doane have been on special paid leave since the matter became public.

Mr Ashby’s lawyers separately agreed they would provide copies of certain text messages to the government by midday on Monday, as part of Mr Ashby’s duty to his employer, so that the government could rely on those messages to determine the future employment prospects of Mr Ashby and Ms Doane.

The court also ordered Mr Ashby to provide his opponents with a complete copy of an affidavit he swore in early April.

Mr Ashby had refused to provide an unredacted copy of the document on the basis it contained privileged material and was irrelevant because it referred to claims that were no longer in issue.

Mr Burnside told the court there were “very substantial redactions” in the 40-page document that should be revealed, given the “central issue is whether Mr Ashby’s evidence should be believed”.

He also said it was highly likely that Mr Ashby’s lawyers had blacked out “those bits they would wish to hide from [the government and Mr Slipper]”.

Michael Lee, SC, for Mr Ashby, said they rejected any notion the proceedings had been brought for a collateral or different purpose.

Mr Ashby, his lawyer Michael Harmer, and Mr McClellan have previously come under fire from Mr Slipper’s legal team for their use of publicity and salacious allegations.

Several weeks after the allegations appeared in the press, Mr Ashby submitted a revised claim to the court that had removed some of the original claims, including about the misuse of Cabcharges.

Mr Ashby’s revised claim accuses the Commonwealth of acting adversely towards him in the course of his work, and accuses Mr Slipper of aiding and abetting this.